Full Review

I ran out of the mall with my newly purchased GT Advance still wrapped. As soon as I got into the car i opened the package carefully for I knew this game might be one to return. I played the game for about 3 days, and after that I could not honestly say that the game was fun anymore so I went to the store and I returned the game. This was the first racing game for any system that I have returned, and I am a BIG fan of racers. In those three or four days I owned the game, I learned alot of cons about it, but no pros other than its a racer and it has alright graphics. So here is my summary of GT Advance which, by the way, was ruined even more because when it was brought to the U.S the save feature was replaced with a 16 character long password system.

Graphics=3/5 The graphics in this game are not that g reat compared to other gameboy advance games out. You will constantly find your self driving in to invisible walls, and after some time you will get annoyed by the way how the wheels on the car don't even move and the car stays in the same spot on the screen in place while the background moves. Its like putting a paper cutout of a car on your tv screen and watching the backround move.

Gameplay=2/5 The game also has some MAJOR gameplay flaws. There is often intersections in the city levels of the game, if you make a wrong turn on the intersection, you bump your car directly into an invisible wall. After you bumped your car into the invisible wall, don't worry, the A.I is so easy they'll slow down and WAIT for you. O yeah, if you get first place in a race you earn a car or an upgrade piece for your car. This is an extremely bad way of gameplay because you don't earn money and get to CHOOSE what parts or car you want, they simply give them to you! O yeah, and some of the tracks are unbeliveably frustrating and can seem UNPLAYABLE! And now for the grand finale of flaws, NO SAVE OPTION! After racing you have to go back through about five menus to the options screen and get a 16 character long password! Encoded into the password is you record lap times, cars, pieces, you name it! And this 16 character long password can consist of about 60 different characters including the alphabet, numbers, and all the symbols you could think of! I can't tell you how many times of mistaked a letter or symbol for a different letter or symbol, and when i went back to load my game using the password, i couldn't! All that work goes right down the drain! Yet, when the game was in japan, there was an auto save feature with no password that saved after every race. So THQ took it out for the U.S release to save a few bucks!


Sound=1/5 Again, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING! The music in this game is made out of beeps and boops, like gameboy color music! This is game boy advance, all of the other gameboy advance games have digital sound, but this game has sound that the 1988 gameboy could have produced! Even the sound effects like the engine are mode out of tones and beeps.

Overall=1/5 Leave this game on the shelf, even the workers at my local game shop are asking customers if they are sure they want to buy the game, when someone wants to purchase it.